Why don’t you just lay down a piece of plywood or whatever on top of the carpet and put the fridge on it? Or put the fridge on the carpet?

It’s a pretty big fridge, and we did not have them measure that area, didn’t want to pay for carpet that will be under a fridge. The plywood or cement board is what we are thinking of putting down. Just don’t think the fridge wou,d slide easily over the Plywood.

How would raising the floor under the fridge help with moving it it still needs to go over the carpet which BTW is apoor choice in front of any fridge for just mess clean up and you sure don’t want carpet under the fridge ever.Maybe post pics of the space but IMO the area where the fridge and cabinet are need to be something else for flooring .

We know it isnt the best choice, it is What we are working around for now. We have high pile carpet and pad, if we set it on floor we would have to some how lift up the fridge about 2inches just to slide it on to a piece of cardboard or dolly. Trying to make the fridge at least somewhat level with carpet so we can slide forward and not lift and slide, we also plan to have about 3 inches in front of fridge not be carpet.

But you would now need to lift the fridge up a couple inches to put it on the "raised floor" and or support it as you slide it out and carefully set it down the same couple inches? And what good will 3" of no carpet do in front if the fridge? Especially if on a raised floor?

It is just a back up fridge mostly will hold pops waters, extra freezer space, it will not be a working kitchen space.

We planned raising the floor surface entirely Under the fridge. So we are thinking of instead of just putting vinyl or whatever on raised floor. Raise entire area that fridge is tucked into. Again not ideal but seems better than just setting the fridge on the concrete Slab in the basement Then trying to shimmy up over the carpet if we ever have to pull out the fridge.

If we can’t change the fact there will be carpeting in front of the fridge ( leaving 3 inches in front of no carpet) what other ways can you easily move the fridge out if you need to access in back .

Now image, in 3 years the extra fridge dies. No money to replace so you pull it out and send it away on a pick-up bed. Oh gosh! What to do with a MASSIVE swatch of missing carpet?????

Oh no honey! What do we do???

I know you don't want to 'pay' for carpet that won't be used....RIGHT NOW. But you want to be VERY CAREFUL about what tomorrow holds. Is it really worth the savings of 1 square yard of carpet (3ft x 3ft = 9sf = 1 square yard). What is the savings? $90 after install (that's assuming one HELL of a carpet and pad).

I will tell you a secret: it is cheaper to have it installed today, then have to replace the ENTIRE carpet later on. Because some times (almost all the time actually) you can never find the same product again. And if you do, you will NOT get the same dye lot.

My advice: lay the carpet wall to wall to wall - including the fridge nook. Throw down some FURNITURE GLIDES ($5.99/pack of 4 at any Home Depot) underneath the wheels of the fridge and continue living your life.

If this is on a basement concrete slab, you do NOT want wood touching concrete. Cement backer board is NOT strong enough to handle the weight of the fridge by itself...and again you don't want it sitting on raw concrete....you just don't.

You will thank me later.

Good points, although carpet ordered and due to arrive, so we can’t alter the order. . So to your point about not raising flooring but also don’t want fridge on concrete what type of flooring should we put on concrete for flooring under fridge with out raising fridge ? Then will sliders over fridge be able to get up over carpet?

Better idea would be to add WHEELS to the refrigerator by creating or purchasing a dolly on which to set the fridge.

There are sliders intended for moving the refrigerator but those would likely NOT work -- they'd likely only work IF you had carpet underneath the fridge for it to slide on rather than need for the sliders to overcome the "ridge" between bare concrete and carpet.

What about this , we have to leave fridge 2 inches from back wall and 2 inches from side wall. . If we put regular flooring under fridge and extend in about 3 1/2 inches in front of fridge, then if we need to access back we would be sliding it forward and it would 5 inches from back which would at least give us enough room to access back panel, etc. if it is completely kaput, then the new fridge installers would have tools, to lift it up over carpet and get it out.

so what type of flooring ? Just some basic stick vinyl tiles, vinyl planks, waterproof laminate ?

The plywood idea from Sammy is the best. If/when the refrigerator needs to be pulled out you can get a couple strips of masonite to align with the wheels/feet and pull it out right on top of the carpet. The only issue I see is that refrigerator openings are usually standard widths where the machines may vary a bit. You may be able to see it on the side of the refrigerator, but that's a pretty minor quibble for a basement refrigerator.

What about dri core subfloor? Seems that would make it so not on concrete. Would raise it a bit, and we can cover the dri core with vinyl flooring.

The only thing I could see holding back DriCore would be it's ability to handle the high pounds per square inch of the feet/wheels.

Of course, if your order offers enough waste you might be able to get them to patch in that section - once the rest is finished. You would of course offer to pay for the extra labour. It might make the suggestion go down a bit easier.

The dri core is rated to with holed 6,000 pounds. They say you can add to entire basement over concrete floor and subfloor to add extra warmth and prevent wet basement issues.

Yep...but that's with a finished floor over top. Then something sitting on that floor.

A fridge might have a high pounds per square inch weight over each foot. Imagine 4 feet each the size of 1 square inch. Now imagine the fridge is 120 lbs. Each foot will have as much as 30 lbs of pressure pressing down on the DriCore OSB. Each foot will be 30 psi. That's pretty high. Some car tires are rated at this pressure level.

So long as DriCore can handle this form of pressure, then go for it. I believe they are sold in packs of 4.